Touches of Canadianness

I'm going to see Great Big Sea with a group of lovely Canadians in EXACTLY A WEEK! I'm so stoked. I saw them at Shamrock Fest in DC last year, but after a year of listening to them, I know pretty much every single one of their songs by now. Though I'm not particularly nuts about their newest album, so hopefully they play more old stuff...

I mentioned that the temperature was negative 9 degrees today and got an abrupt, "Negative nine? Where ya from, the States or something??" from a girl in my French class. I said, "Yeah...I meant negative nine Celsius...." She laughed and informed me that in order to speak proper Canadian, one must tack a "minus" onto temperatures below zero. Minus nine. Not negative nine.

Washroom, NOT bathroom or restroom.
Tuque/toque, NOT hat.
Minus, NOT negative.
Mits, NOT gloves or mittens.
Bands, NOT tribes.
Biling-ew-al, NOT bilingual.
Bad-mint-on, NOT "badmitten."

T's are generally more enunciated. BeTTer, NOT "bedder."

A cross between "aboat" and "aboot" (tending towards neither extreme), NOT "abowt."

I know I'm probably missing a few.

And they said assimilation would be easy...